ObamaCare's Troubles Are Only Beginning

Be prepared for eligibility, payment and information protection debacles—and longer waits for care.

Click here to read this article by Michael J. Boskin. From the 12-16-2013 WSJ. Mr. Boskin, an economics professor at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush. Excerpts:

"The "sticker shock" that many buyers of new, ACA-compliant health plans have experienced—with premiums 30% higher, or more, than their previous coverage—has only begun. The costs borne by individuals will be even more obvious next year as more people start having to pay higher deductibles and copays. 

If, as many predict, too few healthy young people sign up for insurance that is overpriced in order to subsidize older, sicker people, the insurance market will unravel in a "death spiral"

"The "I can't keep my doctor" shock will also hit more and more people in coming months. To keep prices to consumers as low as possible...insurance companies in many cases are offering plans that have very restrictive networks."

"millions must choose among unfamiliar physicians and hospitals, or paying more for preferred providers"

"the far more complex back-office side of the website—where the information in their application is checked against government databases to determine the premium subsidies and prices they will be charged, and where the applications are forwarded to insurance companies—is still under construction."

"There will be longer waits for hospital visits, doctors' appointments and specialist treatment, as more people crowd fewer providers."

"25% expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare will exert pressure on state Medicaid spending"

"The "Cadillac tax" on health plans to help pay for ObamaCare starts four years from this Jan. 1. It will fall heavily on unions whose plans are expensive due to generous health benefits"

"Businesses of all sizes that currently provide health care will have to offer ObamaCare's expensive, mandated benefits, or drop their plans and—except the smallest firms—pay a fine"

"ObamaCare will lead to more part-time workers in some industries, as hours are cut back to conform to arbitrary definitions in the law of what constitutes full-time employment. Many small businesses will be cautious about hiring more than 50 full-time employees, which would subject them to the law's employer insurance mandate."

"On the supply side, medicine will become a far less attractive career for talented young people."

"many practices are closed to Medicaid recipients, some also to Medicare."

"The repeated assertions by the law's supporters that nobody but the rich would be worse off was based on a beyond-implausible claim that one could expand by millions the number of people with health insurance, lower health-care costs without rationing, and improve quality. The reality is that any squeezing of insurance-company profits, or reduction in uncompensated emergency-room care amounts to a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars extracted from those people overpaying for insurance, or redistributed from taxpayers"

"A good start would be sliding-scale subsidies to help people buy a low-cost catastrophic plan, purchasable across state lines, equalized tax treatment of those buying insurance on their own with those on employer plans, and expanded high-risk pools."